Just A Trick Of The Light
by BeingWhoIWishIWas
Summary: Mira is a strange girl living in the Air Temple the same time the Gaang and Zuko happen to stop by. Can she have an effect on the 100 year war? Oh yeah, and she's a firebender with one blue eye and one gold.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note!

Hey people! This is my first fic in this fandom so I'm gonna try my best at this so yeah :P BTW I use a lot of OC's so if you despise that on any or all levels, LEAVE NOW :P just sayin'. pairings undecided, I'll figure that out as we get farther into the story, k? I do not own Avatar; The last Airbender, but i do own Mira :P On with the story!

* * *

I inhale and then exhale slowly. Once more. With my eyes still close I stand up and roll my shoulders, trying to relax. I hear a few screams, more like squeaks actually and then a bellow from some sort of creature. My feet take off as though they have their own mind. I know this abandoned air temple better than I know my own home-village. I don't need my eyes open to navigate this old place. My bare feet fly over the rough stone, weathered by years of abandonment. I open my eyes when I get close enough to the noises where I need to assess the new comers; friend or foe? My eyes flit over the makeshift camp in the clearing below my perch. There's a bald headed boy that looks like he jumped out of one of the murals on the walls, two tan teens in blue, and a small, irritable looking little girl in green. An enormous, real-life sky-bison bumbles over from around the corner. That must be who made the bellowing. I smile at the big, furry beast. He looks kindhearted.

The kids seem to be used to traveling on their own and waste no time in setting up their camp. By mid-afternoon the blue girl is making a sort of stew.

I get up and stretch my legs and arms just as a pale teenager walks around the corner, he's got a huge, angry scar covering half of his face and his gold eyes betray that he's a fire bender. He's actually rather handsome, scar or not.

He awkwardly approaches the oblivious group, until the green girl shouts out a warning without turning her back. The entire group bristles and is suddenly on guard. The fire bender puts his hands up and starts a ridiculous and poorly articulated speech. The girl in blue, who reveals her water bending, immediately kicks him out of camp without a second thought. _ Most likely old enemies. _The boy in blue calls the fire bender a "jerk bender"_ What the crap does THAT mean?_

Suddenly, the fire bender looks up, his eye focus in on me, and I tense. He shakes his head as though to clear something out of his mind before looking up again. I'm gone by the second glance. Just a trick of the light. He leaves and I drop down from my perch and turn around heading back to my home.

A shrill voice calls out, "There's someone else here!"

I break into a run; the kids follow as fast as they can. The temple begins to shift under my feet. _Of course! The little girl in green is an earth bender! _I think to myself.

I skid around a tight corner. And run right into the fire bender. _Why's he even over here_? I scrambleoff my butt and keep running, pushing past the fire bender. Suddenly, stonewalls surround me. _Dang it!_ And then it goes to my hands and feet in a sort of binding, the little team walks up to me, angry. I don't resist, I'd rather not fight them until I know if they're a threat or not.

"Who are you!" the blue boy says, more of a statement then a question, "A fire nation spy?" he pokes me in the head with a boomerang. The green girl smirks. I keep my eyes down so they can't see them.

The monk-boy looks at me and asks who I am. I shrug. The blue girl is less patient, and begins to rant about me trying to destroy the world's last hope for peace. _ Do they really think I'm fire nation? I'm not THAT pale. Speaking of fire nation, where's that fire bender go? _They interrogate me more, but they unwittingly give me information themselves. Their names, for one and that the monk-boy is the Avatar.

My wrists are starting to hurt, so I finally look up. "My name is Mira, I am a fire bender, but not fire nation. Why are you here?"

They're in shock. Well, most of them were, the one called Toph just sits back and laughs.

She stops when the others don't, "What's wrong?" She asks.

Katara glances at me warily, "Toph, She has one blue eye and one gold."

"So?"

"So?! That means she has fire nation and water tribe ancestors!"

"So?"

"UGH!"

Toph releases my hands from their rock prison, "So are you any good at firebending? Maybe you could teach twinkletoes!"

"Twinkletoes?" I ask, amused.

"Aang." She explains, I notice her pale eyes, _she's blind_, I realize in amazement.

I think this over for a second;_ teach the Avatar fire bending? Psh! Ridiculous. I'd lose my temper within ten minutes! That and I don't even know if I'm good compared to the average fire bender. _

I shake my head, "I'm not a good teacher, and it wouldn't help."

"Why are you even here?" Katara asks.

" I've lived in the temple since my parents died," I shrug, "Five years maybe? I've been keeping my distance from the war, Too close to the enemy to get away, too far from the people who actually pose a threat to the power hungry fire nation to be of use."

"How do you survive?" Sokka asks suspiciously as he poked my head with a boomerang again.

I point towards the lush expanse of green that lines the temple sides, and the woods nearby. "The canyon goes down some way, but if you climb down far enough the river at the bottom is more fish than water."

The group starts to walk back to their camp and I walk in the direction of mine. The Toph turns and calls out, "Hey Mira? Where ya goin'?" I turn and can't react other than blink. The entire team has turned around and is looking at me expectantly. _Wait, they want me to come with them? Why? _ I jog back to them, signaling that I'll stay for the time being and we begin walking back to the camp.

When we return a few boys are at the camp looking worried. They immediately relax when they see the group returning but freak out when they see me.

The one with the mustache seems angry, and starts waving his hands all around but can't actually get words to come out of his mouth and I have to stifle a laugh.

Sokka rolls his eyes and says annoyed, "Relax Haru, Mira's not a bad guy."

The one in the wheelchair looks at me, confused and gawks when he sees my different colored eyes but doesn't bother me.

Teo (wheelchair) asks questions a lot and like a smart kid, "So how good are you at firebending?" He asks eventually.

I shrug, "I'm not sure, I don't know how I stack up against regular fire benders."

_But I've trained with the sun warriors so I can't be too far behind, though I doubt I'm especially good. _

"We've met too many fire benders." Aang says absentmindedly.

I raise an eyebrow, though I don't retort, considering that I doubt he meant to offend me.

Toph disappears at one point, though I'm sure she can take care of herself, if she's not back by midnight I'll go find her. I stay up until midnight, fully alert. Katara's awake too.

I stand up, "I'm going to go find Toph" She scrambles to stand up and I say, "relax, just keep guard okay? If I'm not back in an hour come looking ok?" she glares at me suspiciously but sits back down. I race off into the temple following the trail of small, shallow footprints in the dust.

I notice that larger footprints are also on this trail, though they were made much earlier, Toph must have been following someone. I continue to tread noiselessly. I see a fire through the trees, and notice Toph's footprints veer from the larger ones.

I follow the larger ones, and peer through the branches to see the fire bender talking to himself and pretending to be "Uncle" (?) I see Toph hiding behind a rock. She steps on a twig and it breaks, alerting the boy. He jumps up into a bending form. Toph stumbles out and he shoots flames from his hands. Toph brings up a rock barrier but my brain doesn't really register this. Without thinking I jump out in front of the blast and cross my arms, when I feel the heat I spread them out again, effectively extinguishing the fire. I drop down into a defensive pose and wait for him to strike again. He doesn't. Just stands there, dumbfounded. Toph comes out from behind her shield.

She curls her hands into fists and says, "Hey _Sparky, _What's the flames buddy! I just came to talk!"

He looks at her and then at me, "Then what's with the fire-bending girl?" He asks suspiciously.

"I didn't ask her to come!" She turns to me, "Why are you here anyway?"

"You disappeared. I gave you until midnight until I would come and get you. It's past midnight."

"You did not!" She storms.

"Whoops. I came after you anyways and if we're not back within an hour Katara's coming searching."

She crosses her arms and rolls her eyes, "Katara's gonna follow dust footprints?"

I get her point; Katara wouldn't be able to track us, she wouldn't even know where to start.

The fire bender boy looks annoyed and says, "What did you want to talk about, anyways?"

"What'd you do to piss off Katara so bad?"

Blood drains from his face, if he gets much paler he'd be transparent.

"I-I, It…" he face palms. "I'm just sorry!"

Toph and me both blink. _That's it? That's all he has to say? Sheesh._

I look at him, "What's your name, anyways?" I ask.

He blinks, surprised, "Uh, Zuko."

I stifle a giggle, "Well, nice to meet you "Uh-Zuko."

He reddens. "Just Zuko."

I grin, happy because I haven't laughed in a little too long and he's just hilarious to mess with.

"Well, nice to meet you, _Just Zuko"_

He colors and doesn't respond anymore.

Smart Zuko it is then

* * *

The three of us go back to camp, a good mile away. Zuko keeps trying to lead the way, but Toph just pushes in front of him. I stay in the back, tense, feeling as though we're being watched. Something's not right; I've never felt so out of place in the temple, Someone's here that doesn't belong. They just haven't come out of the shadows yet. When they do, I'll be ready though.

We trek the mile at a fast pace for walking, though Zuko looks antsy, like he's itching for a fight.

Zuko's leading again and Toph cuts in front of him really fast, and Zuko skids to a stop real fast, and he falls on his butt. He colors and gets up faster then he fell. I roll my eyes at them. _Crazy. _

By the time we reach camp, the sun is peeking over the horizon. I already feel more energized from the few, faint rays of sunlight; even Zuko's looking less cranky.

Katara's at the campfire, cooking. She's fidgety and she's probably worried sick about Toph. When she hears us approach she whirls around and looks like she's about to explode. I'm not sure if she's relieved or angry. I'm not sure if _she_ knows whether she's angry or relived.

Toph grins and strides up to the cooking pot and smells it. Katara glares at me then finally notices Zuko and goes into a rage.

"What is he doing here?!" She yells, her voice cracking and furious, she points a finger at me, "Why did you bring him here? Traitor!"

I quickly explain as Toph, as usual, sits back and snickers. I glare at the blind girl; though she has no way of knowing I'm giving her a death-glare. Oh well.

Zuko waves his arms frantically trying to explain himself while talking over me, Toph covers his mouth with rock after a minute of our "explaining".

Everyone's awake within seconds the screaming started, so now we have to vote. Katara has decided I don't count. I cross my arms and sit down, extremely irritated.

Eventually, Zuko's allowed to help and he's going to be Aang's firebending teacher. This is quite a patchwork quilt of a group, to say the least. I look around the clearing, looking for a place to meditate.

Eventually, I find a ledge that's solid enough and I hold my breath for a moment, letting my thoughts drain to the back of my consciousness, exhales. _Why does the group hate Zuko?_ Inhale. _ Katara especially distrusts him. _Exhale._ Toph must use some sort of method to "see" she's too observant to just be blind…_Inhale_. She never wears shoes…_ swirl around in my brain until eventually; I have presented and pondered all of my restless questions. Excellent.

I open my eyes, not remembering closing them, when I see Zuko and Aang meditating. Zuko is in an erect meditation pose, whereas Aang is struggling to keep his posture, and keeps going back to the more relaxed positions air benders are taught for meditation. Poor Aang probably doesn't even know what to meditate on, as air benders have specific ways to meditate different things. I doubt Zuko knows or understands that, though. I make my way back down to the clearing, ready for whatever today brings with my strange new friends.

* * *

By the way, for those of you who don't know "Mira" is a giant red star some 424 light years away. It doesn't have any connection to the story but I thought it was cool. :P REVIEW I'd love to know what you think of Mira's character, good, bad, terrible etc. thank's for reading (And hopefully reviewing) I'm not going to post another chapter until I have 5 reviews, AT LEAST! :)

Thankyouthankyouthankyou,

BeingWhoIWishIWas :)


	2. Sparring and Qi (Chi)

Author's Note!

Hey people! So yeah I didn't get 5 reviews and that made me sad L but however I did get 2 reviews so I figured I'd post this anyways. **Also a huge thank you to Mermaid166, a guest reviewer and golden-priestess** J Anyways, I know that this story isn't popular and I don't expect it to be but incase a few of you like it, here it is! J

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"Hey!" Aang calls to me, excitedly.

I turn around and reply, "Yeah? What do ya need Aang?"

"Zuko and me were wondering—" he starts but was cut off by Zuko.

"It was just Aang." Zuko said hurriedly, coloring slightly.

"—if you would show us any firebending moves. Cuz Zuko's being weird and his "inner fire" isn't cooperating" Aang finished.

My surprise must have been evident on my face because Aang quickly added, "It's okay if you don't want to or aren't good or anything or…" He trailed off, and started rubbing his head, embarrassed.

I shrug I honestly didn't mind, "Ok, I guess so. Would you like to spar?"

He grins and then his face falls to a more serious expression, "I'll go easy on you, okay? And I won't use anything but fire cuz we're probably the same level."

I tense at this, I've seen Aang training (the dang pillar obscured Zuko so I have no idea how I match up to him as far as firebending) and I'm definitely better than him! Hmph!

"Well I'm not going easy so don't you dare, and all elements are game for you, understand kid?" I say sternly.

He gawks and then frowns, but I turn away to fast for him to reply so I hear him mutter, "I'm 112!" Zuko smirks.

I take a basic stance at the far end of the clearing. Aang copies me and we start circling each other.

"Come on, Aang! My hair's going gray over here!" I taunt.

He glares, his brow furrowing, "Hey!"

Aang tenses, twisting his back slightly along with his left shoulder as he recoils, preparing for a strike. His right foot and arm move forward, indicating he's sending a blast from his left hand. As I predicted, his left hand come hurtling from its position. He sends a mediocre blast of fire at me, which I scatter quickly with the same move I used when I deflected Zuko's blast that was accidentally aimed at Toph.

He stares, concentrated. Another blast, but this one is quicker. But I roll under it, the flames lick at my back, but I land upright unscathed.

Aang glares, "You're not even firebending!"

"No reason to." I say, "What is that earthbending saying? 'Wait and listen'? Why tire myself out when it's much easier to dodge and block?"

"But you're bigger than me so you don't have to play defense!" Aang says, puzzled. He sends another blast, this time with his foot.

"So? Why develop bad habits? I'm smaller than most of my enemies, so it might be wise for you to adopt the technique until you get a bit bigger." I point out.

He furrows his brow again and stops throwing reckless blasts, this time waiting for me to make a move. Both he and Zuko are staring at me like I'm crazy for not having made a move yet.

I bend over slightly and throw my arms to my sides, white fire coming out of the bottoms of my fists and charge the Avatar. He throws up a wall of flame, panicked. I break through easily, not breaking my run and this time he sends icicles at me, one scrapes my arm but I don't flinch. I take three long strides and a giant leap upward then I turn in the air and propel off a pillar and I bring my flaming fists down about fifteen inches from Aang's head. My fists contact the ground and I spread my fingers and swing my legs out, effectively knocking Aang off his feet. I put my foot on his chest and say, "I win."

Aang's blushing furiously, "How did you _do_ that?" I smile as I give him a hand to be helped up.

I shrug. "My teacher taught me to control my body as well as my bending-Including how much my center effects me, so I don't get dizzy or disoriented while I'm in the air."

He nods and says, "How does that work?"

"It's the same thing that prevents you from getting disoriented when you spin on your glider or use airbending while you're not connected to the ground."

"that sounds terrifying." Toph states as she walks over, "bending while not connected to the ground? Blech!"

Zuko looks at me suspiciously and says, "What's that move called?"

I laugh and say, "My training wasn't forms, I was taught to use what you have and improvise, battle scenarios or situations are never set in stone. My teacher refused to teach me forms for that reason." I shrug again.

Zuko nods, trying to understand anything other than the strict, formatted training he grew up with.

Sokka wanders over and apparently he, and Toph had been watching from behind a corner, (Well, Toph did her earth-bending seeing thing which Aang had tried to explain to me a yesterday.)

"I though you said that you were 'not good but not bad'!" Sokka demands in a strange way, quoting a made up thing that I was supposed to have said. _Which I didn't but why does this surprise me?_

He takes a huge bite out of a blue fruit. _Again, why does this surprise me?_

"I didn't know how good I was in comparison to anyone you've fought." I state simply.

Sokka's eye's bug out and he purses his lips and points a finger at me, "WELL YOU KNOW NOW! Then he turns to Zuko and yells, "ZUKO! HOW GOOD IS SHE?"

Zuko rubs the back of his head awkwardly and then replies, "She's actually one of the better benders I've seen, her style is similar to Azula's—you know, without the insane and scary part."

I honestly don't know how to react to that statement but Sokka reacts faster than me anyways. _That's a first._

Sokka throws his arms up and screams, "AZULA? WHERE? RUNAWAY!" His eyes roll around in his head and he staggers away, dropping a canister of some sort. Toph goes to pick it up but I slap her hand away, figuring it could be the cause of Sokka's extra-craziness.

"You want to be like Sokka or something?" I ask. She smirks and leaves the thing where it is.

Katara and Haru come running over with The Duke trailing behind them.

"SOKKA!" Katara yells angrily. "Cactus juice is for numbing wounds only! Not to drink!"

The three go off chasing the Sokka. _Yeah, THE Sokka, he's acting like a skittish beast!_

"So can you help with my firebending every now and again?" Aang asked hopefully, "All Zuko does is have us meditate and do simple stuff. I want to _really_ firebend!"

I laugh and If the kid had any hair I would have ruffled it, "Maybe I'll spar with you occasionally, but I'm not your teacher so don't make me."

Aang nods, not the least bit deflated demeanor-wise. Suddenly Toph smirks, _Should I be afraid of that look?_ And then blurts out "HEY! You and Sparky could spar!" She grins wickedly.

Zuko shrugs, "I don't know.."

Toph pulls on his sleeves and acts like a little kid, "COME ON SPARKY! MAN UP AND SPAR! ARE YOU CHICKEN?" She gives him a mock gasp and a signature smirk.

Zuko glares at her and looks up challengingly, "I'm game if you are."

"Fine with me, _Sparky._" I tease him a little.

He glares, "Don't call me that!"

I snort and the teasingly smirk, "Make me!"

I leap backwards, completing a neat flip while fire spewed from my feet. I landed gracefully and crouched into a fighting stance.

He raced over, fists flaming and leaped at me, a huge flame erupting from the smaller ones that engulfed his fists. I did a roll out of the way and immediately shot back.

"What happened to 'waiting and listening'" Zuko smirked.

"Pah! I'm only patient when making points, Sparky." I retort.

He sends another blast at me, and he's gaining ground, But I force him back quickly with a quick blast and a kick to his ribs. He stumbles back but He doesn't look hurt much past a shallow bruise so we continue fighting.

"Cheap shot!" He snarls.

I roll my eyes and say, "Isn't that what war is? A string of cheap blows with a few fair ones for the public's view of their home?"

He nods and says, "true, but If you're using hand-to-hand combat then so am I."

"OH! I'm _so_ scared!" I say mockingly.

He moves faster than I've ever seen anyone move before. He grabs my wrists and pins me to the pillar. _Not for long!_

I twist myself around and out of his grasp so I'm facing the wall and then I bunch up my legs so my knees are nearly the same height as my collarbone, so my feet hit the pillar and push off as hard as I can, a human missile that runs over Zuko. _Supposedly. _

Unfortunately, I don't weigh even near enough to actually pummel Zuko, I'm barely 90 pounds and although I knock him over and land on him, the fight's not over yet.

We're both a bit battered and now I notice that the entire group is watching us fight. I'm momentarily distracted and Zuko charges again, I aim a punch at his chest and he ducks in a back-bend like motion and he lands on his back and twists around, sending fire shooting up at me. A few more minutes of this and I'm pinned again. _Hmph._

This time I cry out, "Hey Zuko! DUCK!" A stream of fire comes out of my mouth slowly._ I want to startle him, not fry his entire face, after all. _He dodges it, effectively getting him off me, and the fight resumes.

It goes back and forth, half the time he's winning but can't quite beat me and the other half I'm winning but can't immobilize him.

Neither dares to give into exhaustion, _ If he can keep going, so can I. And I will 'til I drop. _Considering that similar thoughts are running through his mind, the winner of this fight could literally be _"Who hit the ground first?"_ and no doubt it'd be by a millisecond.

That's exactly what happened but no one could tell who dropped down first.

We both just lay there, on opposite sides of the clearing, thoroughly and utterly exhausted. Toph's laughter rings out across the silent clearing.

"Way to go Sparky and Qi." Toph says grinning.

"Qi?" I ask, amused by Toph's antics with nicknames. _ Isn't that spelled Qi? Though I swear it sounds like Chi._ I think to my self, trying to recall how to spell that small word. I smile as I remember Teacher's lesson about Qi (Chi). Qi is life energy, its stored, and flows through chakras.

Aang laughs, he probably was the one to explain Qi to Toph and even Zuko cracks a small smile. The others look simply flabbergasted. I shake my head and the Sokka starts complaining about the lack of meat. If this is a typical day in this group, I'm not going anywhere.


	3. Preparing The Competition

Authors Note!

Yay! Chapter 3! Ok a huge thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, followed and even read this story! I appreciate it so much! It's always so encouraging when I get reviews etc! So Viola! Chapter 3…

* * *

I was sitting on my new favorite perch, meditating like I do every morning, not opening my eyes until the first few rays of sunlight peer into the temple.

"Zuuukooo, why do we have to train sooooo earrrly?" The young Avatar asks in a whiney tone, the high-pitched awfulness disrupts my thoughts.

Zuko bristles and replies, almost reflexively, "Fire bender's are strongest in the morning and early afternoon, so that's when we train."

"So? Katara never made me train in the middle of the night just because water benders are stronger at night!" Aang says, still whining. I tense up my muscles in my back and hold them like that, then release after I feel them hurt. I feel less annoyed and my unpleasant mood dissipates slightly.

I jump down from my perch calling out to the boys, "Come on, Let's do something different today, alright? I need to get my stuff from my old hide out and it's difficult to get there, it'd be a good challenge for you." I say not addressing either one of them in particular.

"What's so difficult about it?" Zuko said, his eyebrows raised.

I smirk, "We'll you didn't find it last time you we're here now did you? And if you did, you couldn't get to it anyways."

Zuko's expression is pure shock, "You were here then?"

I shrug, "According to the outside world, I'm a spirit, occasionally venturing outside to nearby towns to protect them. I've been here since Ozai took power."

Aang nods, "That would explain why the towns have never been occupied by the fire nation, despite being so close to the border."

I nod, pride welling up in me, I had made a difference for some people, at least.

"Shouldn't we tell the others?" Aang asks.

I nod and then grin, "Actually, we could make this into a test. All of us could try to find the hideout, and I'll be the final challenge, in order to beat the game you have to beat me and grab one bag of my supplies and bring it back here."

Aang grins, "Yeah! You're going down!" then he thinks for a moment, " Actually, what if you and Zuko teamed up, you two combined would be more fair, because just you, the rest could slip off while you fight one."

I shrug and then think out loud, "Perhaps this could be a competition, the first one to get back here, and the one with the most supplies are the two winners."

Zuko nods, "That could work. We'll start after breakfast."

I smile saying, "Great! Now at least I don't have to carry all my stuff back here! I'll go get my hide out ready and make my own breakfast," Then I turn to Zuko, "I'll come back and we'll be given and hour head start so you can get to know the area and get to the camp on time. Also you two will have to explain the game to the rest of the Gaang."

They both nod and I sprint off towards my hideout.

I leap over the gaps in the walkways, sometimes using my firebending as propulsion to breach the longer gaps. I use the overgrown brush and vines to create small, harmless traps that will slow them down. I line a lot of the floor with wood of doors to give Toph, Haru and Aang less of an advantage over Zuko and me. I line up old mirrors to face entrances, so that if I come through one entrance it will look like I'm coming out of a different door, which is really just a wall mirror made to look like an entrance. I tilt the mirrors slightly, making sure that the victims of this trap won't see themselves in the mirror.

I line the walls with sticky substances from plants that I've saved in jars as a replacement for tar. This should prevent anyone from escaping the traps, and if they do escape, it'll leave a lovely trail and the stickiness will slow them down. Most of these traps I've only just had to alter to make them less deadly, so I won't kill my friends only slow them down. I had originally set these up incase of a fire nation attack, and they've been proven to work. Zuko and Iroh haven't been my only visitors in my 10 out of 15 years I've lived in this temple. I felt bad about lying about the time spent here, but I didn't know if I could trust me and I didn't want them to link the "Spirit" that's protected the villages for seven years. I've been fighting battles since I was nine. My firebending Master died five years ago, and he was more a parent than my real ones were.

I look at the sky, and the sun shows me that I should be getting back now. I race back through the trail. I leave discrete hints so the Gaang isn't just lashing out blindly for the hiding place. Even Toph will have trouble, as the hideout's floors are entirely wood so she can't just sense my location without following the clues.

I race back, using my firebending to leave large gaps between sets of foot prints, I'll have Zuko do the same when I bring him back.

My feet have grown wings as I fly across my home, the temple has become almost a second element to me.

"Oh! Qi's back!" Toph calls, feeling my feet on the temple's rock. Although I'm not sure why or how that nickname suits me, and I'll probably never bother to ask.

"Did Zuko and Aang explain the game to you?" I ask the group in general.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to find it?" Sokka asks skeptically.

"I've left clues, if you can find them, if not it's a game of hit and miss. Also, I think the non-benders should be able to team up if they want to, but I won't make you. Other than that, it's everyone for themselves."

The team nods and I say, "Ok, Zuko come on, The rest of you have one hour before you can start, ok? Cheaters are disqualified and get their butt's kicked by me. Deal?"

Everyone acknowledges and Zuko and I set off. We race through the temple, he keeps up well, but does slow me down a little, but less than I expected. His firebending looks weaker then before, As I notice when we have to propel ourselves across gaps, but it's still stronger than most.

"How much farther?" Zuko asks, panting slightly as we run.

"We're here," I say, slowing to a stop. "Watch and memorize all the traps I point out and don't get caught in them."

His eyes narrow but he nods. He looks up at the sun, "Our hour's nearly up."

I nod and motion fro him to follow me, "Come on. Watch out for those vines, and the trip wire and look for the mirrors…" I trail off, he's staring at me in an odd way. I wave my hand in front of his face and say, "Hello? You home in there?"

He snaps out of it, and a blush floods his face, "Uh—I " He's kind of cute in an awkward way…I scowl at myself internally. Haha, yeah NO. War is not the time to start crushing. I keep my own blush under control and continue talking about the traps and eventually we set up a battle-strategy. And now, we wait for the Gaang to find the hide out.


End file.
